People living with endometriosis wait an average of 7.5 years for a diagnosis. Social science researchers are working to identify ways to help reduce this timeline.
We researched how much difference opioids like codeine, oxycodone or morphine make to osteoarthritis pain. We found they helped about as much as paracetamol. Yet they are far more dangerous.
The concept of placebos – which are sometimes called “sugar pills” – has been around since the 1800s.
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Drug manufacturers often shun the use of placebos in clinical trials. But research suggests that placebos could play an important role in the treatment of depression, pain and other maladies.
Women wait up to eight years to receive an endometriosis diagnosis.
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Ending the opioid epidemic requires addressing not only treatment gaps in addiction and overdose, but also inadequate pain management.
One potential way to make opioids less addictive is to make them target injured tissue rather than the healthy brain.
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While the COVID-19 pandemic raged on, the opioid epidemic got worse as drug overdose deaths soared. New research proposes a way to chemically modify opioids to reduce the risk of addiction.
Stretching exercises are often prescribed by health professionals, such as physiotherapists, to reduce pain.
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Weed, though far less dangerous than many other drugs, is not entirely without risk. Some 59% of people treating pain with medical cannabis experience moderate to severe withdrawal symptoms
At critical developmental periods when young children are learning about themselves, others and the world, they are frequently seeing pain portrayed unrealistically in kids’ TV shows and movies.
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In children’s media, pain is depicted alarmingly frequently, usually unrealistically and often violently, but without empathy or help. These images of pain send all the wrong messages.
Between a third and half of people in the UK suffer from chronic pain.
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Jasmine Hearn, Manchester Metropolitan University and Stella Bullo, Manchester Metropolitan University
Finding a more personal and expressive way to talk about pain can empower sufferers and may help diagnose some conditions.
The Spike protein on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 must bind to proteins on the surface of human cells to trigger an infection.
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Scientists in the UK and Germany discovered a new doorway that the COVID-19 virus uses to infect human cells. This reveals new therapeutic possibilities for blocking the virus.
Spending money can seem a bit easier when you’re in physical pain.
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The SARS-CoV-2 virus usually infects the body via the ACE2 protein. But there is another entry point that allows the virus to infect the nervous system and block pain perception.
New rules attempt to curb opioid-related deaths in Australia. These changes are a step in the right direction – but we need to tread carefully to avoid unintended consequences.
Chronic pain is everyone’s problem. It’s costly, debilitating and, according to new statistics, increasingly common. Reversing the trend is achieveable but far from easy.